Pokémon: I’m Really Not a Team Rocket Spy

"Your Charmander has recovered its strength."

At the Pokémon Center, Maki took the Poké Ball from Nurse Joy with a nod of thanks and immediately released Charmander to stay by his side.

"Grr~"

As soon as it emerged, Charmander stretched lazily and rubbed its head against Maki's leg… Luckily, it didn't decide to take a bite!

Maki was sure that the thought had crossed Charmander's mind—after all, the way it greeted people was often unpredictable.

"Charmander's all better now, right?"

Lance leaned in curiously.

"Back off, back off. Charmander just recovered, and I don't have time to battle you right now."

Maki shot Lance an exasperated look.

"Ahem! Do you really think I'm the kind of guy who only thinks about battling all day?"

"Oh? Aren't you?"

Maki countered without hesitation.

Charmander wasn't at the Pokémon Center because of an injury from battling Lance—it had actually lost a match at the battle arena earlier that day.

Over the past two weeks, Maki had been steadily challenging the battle arena and had now reached the ten-star level. But as the difficulty increased, Charmander was starting to struggle.

This time, their opponent was a Wartortle, the evolved form of Squirtle, which had both a type advantage and a higher level. It was a fair loss.

As for his battles against Lance, those had never really stopped. At this point, Charmander and Lance's Dratini were evenly matched, with neither able to consistently defeat the other.

Knowing he couldn't outmatch Maki in a war of words, Lance swiftly changed the subject.

"That Pokémon Egg of yours should be hatching soon, right?"

"Yeah, probably in a few more hours."

"Mind if I watch?"

Lance asked with great interest. He had never actually seen a Pokémon hatch firsthand. His Charmander had been given to him by the League, just like Maki's, and he had caught Dratini in the Dragon's Den of his family's ancestral home. Other than those two, he hadn't raised any other Pokémon.

"Sure, if you're interested, come along."

Maki answered casually. Cottonee wasn't exactly a rare Pokémon, and Lance would hardly be impressed by it. If he wanted, he could wait in the Dragon's Den to see a Dratini hatch instead. Clearly, he was just curious.

They arrived at Maki's room in the Pokémon Center. This was Lance's first time here, so he looked around with interest. However, it was just a standard room, and Maki hadn't made any particular decorations.

The only thing that stood out was the Pokémon Egg placed in the corner.

Checking the incubation device's display, Maki prepared for the hatching process. He took a large towel, folded it, and laid it on the table, pressing down in the center to form a small nest. Then, he carefully removed the Cottonee Egg from the incubator and placed it on the towel.

The incubation timer was only an estimate. It was perfectly normal for an egg to hatch an hour or two earlier or later than predicted.

At this stage, keeping the egg in the incubator was no longer necessary. A natural environment might actually be more suitable for its birth.

"By the way, Maki, why did you choose Cottonee as your second Pokémon? Surely there were better choices, right?"

Lance had remained silent while Maki arranged everything, not wanting to disturb him. Only after Maki was finished did he finally voice his curiosity.

To Lance, Cottonee was a fairly unremarkable Pokémon. Even if Maki was after its Chlorophyll ability, Bulbasaur would have been a much better choice, along with many other suitable alternatives. There was no real reason to pick Cottonee.

Chlorophyll, combined with Charizard's Solar Power, was a key component of a Sun Team. Lance could tell that Maki was building his team around this strategy.

That surprised him. He hadn't expected Maki to start planning his team composition so early. Even now, Lance himself was still struggling to figure out how to form a cohesive battle strategy between his future Dragonite and Charizard.

Sun Teams were a common choice for Fire-type specialists, but the biggest mistake was simply stuffing the team with Fire-types and relying solely on the boost to Fire-type moves from Sunny Day.

The same applied to Sandstorm and Rain Teams. Over-reliance on a single weather effect made them vulnerable to counter-strategies. Once their core mechanics were disrupted, they struggled to adapt.

Cottonee's final evolution, Whimsicott, could fit into a Sun Team—but it wasn't the optimal choice.

"I guess part of it was fate. When I was in the Viridian Forest, I encountered a whole group of Cottonee and Whimsicott, and it gave me an idea. Besides… don't you think both Cottonee and Whimsicott are really cute?"

Maki joked, prompting a reaction from Charmander, who tugged at his sleeve.

"Char!"

I'm cute too!

"That's your reason?"

Lance's expression twitched slightly. There was no way Maki was choosing a core Pokémon just because it was adorable—that would be way too reckless.

"That's only part of the reason," Maki admitted with a smile as he patted Charmander's head. "Mainly, I think Cottonee will pair well with Charmander."

"As long as you have a plan."

Lance didn't push further. He wasn't an expert on team compositions, so giving advice might do more harm than good.

Maki clearly put a lot of thought into his team-building. From their time together, Lance had already realized that Maki's knowledge of Pokémon wasn't inferior to his own—sometimes, Maki even came up with insights that gave Lance new ideas.

Of course, there was no way he'd follow Maki's example and catch a Cottonee himself. Cottonee had a Fairy typing, and Fairy-types were the mortal enemies of Dragon-types. If his family found out he had caught a Fairy-type Pokémon, they would probably drag him home and lecture him for hours.

As for Dragon/Fairy Pokémon, that combination didn't exist yet—not until Mega Evolution was discovered and Altaria earned the infamous title of "Dragon-Traitor."

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